The invention relates to a shaver comprising a shaving head including at least one cutting blade and two skin-supporting members, the cutting blade having a cutting edge extending perpendicularly to a shaving direction of the shaving head, and the skin-supporting members being arranged, viewed in the shaving direction, respectively, in front of and behind the cutting blade and extending substantially in a contact surface wherein, in operation, the shaving head contacts a skin surface to be treated, while the cutting blade and the skin-supporting members are secured to a sub-frame, which is coupled to a main frame and can be displaced, against a spring force, with respect to the main frame.
The invention also relates to a shaving head which can suitably be used in a shaver in accordance with the invention.
A shaver of the type mentioned in the opening paragraph is disclosed in WO-A-97/26119. The shaving head of the known shaver comprises two mutually parallel cutting blades which, viewed in the shaving direction, are arranged between the two skin-supporting members. If the user places the shaving head on the skin surface, an exerted press-on force is transmitted to the skin surface mainly via the two skin-supporting members. As a result, a contact force exerted by the cutting blades on the skin surface is limited, and lesions to the skin surface, which could occur during moving the shaving head in the shaving direction over the skin surface as a result of too large a contact force between the cutting blades and the skin surface, are precluded as much as possible. In the known shaver, the main frame of the shaving head is attached to a handle, while the sub-frame of the shaving head is attached to the main frame by means of four mechanical torsion springs. As a result, when the shaving head is moved over the skin surface, the sub-frame follows the contours present in the skin surface as accurately as possible, so that the cutting blades continually contact the skin surface as completely as possible.
A drawback of the known shaver resides in that a skin curvature, which is present at the location of the cutting blades and which develops under the influence of the press-on force, depends upon a size of said press-on force. If the press-on force is comparatively small, the skin curvature is comparatively small too, so that only a comparatively limited smoothness of the skin surface is attained. If the press-on force is relatively large, the skin curvature is comparatively large too, which results in a very smooth skin surface, but which may also lead to skin irritations as a result of a comparatively large contact force between the cutting blades and the skin surface. Consequently, a shaving result obtained by means of the known shaver is highly personal and depends, in particular, on the press-on force exerted by the user when he places the shaving head on the skin surface.